Lee Daniels

As Cecil Gaines, the fictional character loosely based on Eugene Allen, a black presidential butler who served through eight administrations from Eisenhower to Reagan, Forest Whitaker gives a performance so powerful in its subtlety that it's dumbfounding to realize that this is the same actor who wo...

So tomorrow is the big day; Lee Daniels' The Butler - a film that was in the middle of a legal battle between its distributor, The Weinstein Company, and their opponent, Warner Bros., but is now in the clear - opens tomorrow, August 16.

Before "Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire" debuted at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, there wasn't much anticipation for the film. It was an adaptation of a beloved novel directed by a Lee Daniels, whose first feature, "Shadowboxer," was just too off-the-wall for many to handle.

Lee Daniels is used to a good fight. He had to fight perceptions of his first film, “Shadowboxer,” in order to make “Precious: Based On The Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire.” He had to fight for the right to direct “The Paperboy,” a project that had switched hands amongst filmmakers as lauded as Pedro Almod...

After a whopping 15 years, Oprah Winfrey is finally back on the big screen this Friday in "Lee Daniels' The Butler." Since her last feature, 1998's Oscar-nominated "Beloved," Winfrey has seen her career skyrocket, making her one of the world's richest women. But given how commanding Winfrey is in "T...

Despite my misgivings about the film that his life inspired (misgivings that have nothing to do with the real man himself, as I know him), if there's one very good thing that comes out of the release of Lee Daniels' The Butler, it's that it will likely generate public interest in the story of the re...

At this year’s National Association for Black Journalists Convention, I received the opportunity to talk briefly, one on one with Lee Daniels (director of ‘The Butler’) and Wil Haygood (the author of ‘The Butler’) about their new movie ‘Lee Daniels’ ‘The Butler’. They both talk about how this movie ...

There's a reason The Weinstein Co. is opening "Lee Daniels' The Butler" ahead of film festival season, even if it does have Oscars in mind. They recognize that this crowd pleaser will play better, like the similarly accessible "The Help," for a wide audience than critics. It's a four-hankie tearjerk...